THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2021 • THE BULLETIN
GO! MAGAZINE • PAGE 19
Continued from previous page
That broader effort led to his first book,
2009’s highly successful “Massacred for
Gold: The Chinese in Hells Canyon,” which
has seen multiple printings and still sells
well, he said.
It was his own family that led him on the
path to writing “Breaking Chains,” his sec-
ond book, published in 2013.
“I heard from my family that an ancestor
had brought a slave to Oregon, and I had
not known that story previously,” Nokes
said. Prior to the Civil War, there may have
been as many as 100 slaves brought to Or-
egon, though the number was more likely
around 65. Some 35 slaves’ names are in-
cluded in the index of “Breaking Chains,”
and Nokes has learned of another 20 since
publication.
“The fact that there were slaves in Oregon
at all, I found rather shocking, frankly, and
wanted to know that story,” he said. “The
fact that one of my ancestors had brought a
slave made it somewhat of a personal story.”
The slave’s name was Reuben Shipley.
Often slaves were brought along to Oregon
Country on an agreement that they would
be freed if they committed to helping their
owner get settled.
“That was the case with Reuben Shipley,”
Nokes said. “He was eventually freed.”
“I found out about that soon after coming
back to Oregon, and so I needed to find out
about that. So that led me into the whole
story of Oregon slavery. And in the course
of doing that, I came across the exclusion
laws.”
The second law, passed in 1849, intended
to prevent Blacks from coming to or resid-
ing in Oregon, and at least one person was
forced out of state under it.
The best known of the laws was likely the
third one, Nokes said, a clause written into
the Bill of Rights of the state constitution.
“Delegates to Oregon’s consti-
tutional convention sub-
mitted an exclusion clause
to voters on Nov. 7, 1857,
along with a proposal to
legalize slavery,” he wrote
in the Oregon Encyclope-
dia, a project of the Oregon
Historical Society. “Voters
disapproved of slavery by a
wide margin, ensuring that
Oregon would be a free state,
and approved the exclusion
clause by a wide margin. In-
corporated into the Bill of
Rights, the clause prohibited
Blacks from being in the state,
owning property, and making
contracts. Oregon thus became
the only free state admitted to
the Union with an exclusion clause in its
constitution.”
Fortunately, the clause was never en-
forced, Nokes said, but it still had a chilling
effect on Blacks coming to Oregon.
“It was well known that Blacks were not
arts note
Sunriver Art Fair now accepting submissions
Organizers of the Sunriver Art Fair are planning for the return of the live event, planned for Aug. 13
to 15 in the Village at Sunriver.
March 15 is the last date for artists to apply for both the fair and a new online component on
eventeny.com, which will allow the artists to set up a virtual store to promote their art and continue
sales through Sept. 26. If COVID restrictions prevent the in-person event from happening, the online
fair option will still be available.
Both events are juried, and applications can be submitted at zapplication.com.
For more information, contact: sunriverartfair.com or facebook.com/SunriverArtFair.
David Jasper, The Bulletin
When people learn about this chapter
of Oregon’s history, “Blacks are not
surprised. They know more of Oregon’s
racial history. Whites, we tend to not
want to think about the unhappy things
that happened early in our history. We
kind of forget what we did to the Native
Americans. We kind of forget what we
did to Blacks.”
— R. Gregory Nokes, “Breaking Chains” author
welcome in Oregon,” Nokes said. “And so
Blacks considering emigrating out of the
South, or wherever they were, this would be
known to them.”
When people learn about this chapter of
Oregon’s history, Nokes said, “Blacks are not
surprised. They know more
of Oregon’s racial history.
Whites, we tend to not want
to think about the unhappy
things that happened early
in our history. We kind of
forget what we did to the
Native Americans. We kind
of forget what we did to
Blacks.”
Nokes said it was a shock
when he learned he had
an ancestor who brought a
slave to Oregon.
“But keep in mind, I am
a journalist, and it takes
a lot to shock us. Report-
ers are learning things all
the time that normally
we wouldn’t imagine could happen, ”
he said. “It did make me want to write this
story. It was that spark, which said, ‘I’ve got
to find out about this. What happened?
Who were these people?’”
David Jasper: 541-383-0349,
djasper@bendbulletin.com
Shoppers
take in
the 2016
Sunriver Art
Fair, which
is slated to
return live in
August.
Submitted